


His Return - Part 1

by queenwcrown



Series: Insanity [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Human, Anxiety, Depression, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Recovery, mentions of toture, second part hopefully this year, shoutout to Arya who reminded me this series existed, this is a sequel so please read the first part, this took way too long to be uploaded, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 12:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15364725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenwcrown/pseuds/queenwcrown
Summary: After 6 years Nico has finally returned.





	His Return - Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Return (Insanity) – Part 1  
> Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians / Heroes of Olympus; AU  
> Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Rick Riordan  
> Warnings: Creepy, horror, talks about metal health  
> Pairings: Percy/Nico, Jason/Leo, Annabeth/Reyna, Hazel/Frank, Luke/Percy (Past)  
> Summary: After 6 years, Nico has finally returned.
> 
>  
> 
> WARNING! May contain triggers! Proceed with caution!

 

**Return – Part 1**

            The bustling and crowded underground train stations was something he didn't know he would never get used it.  People shouted, shoved and were just plain rude most of the time.  The bright lights in the ceiling always seemed to make headaches hit him with full force like he was hit with the train that was being boarded.  Kids ran around with no parents in sight to stop them, he just hoped that none of them fell onto the tracks.

Right now, all he was worried about was getting to work.  He had to go and talk to the boss about the recent article they were sending him on.  Honestly, he just wanted to head back to his apartment and sleep for the next twelve hours, but he knew that that wasn't going to happen.  Life just hated him. 

It had been six years since he last saw those green eyes.  A long time, especially since he didn't see those eyes open after what happened in that cellar on that dreary day.  He could still feel the fear as he walked into the room for the first time.  To see _him_ lying in bed fitfully.  Nico hoped that it would never happen to Percy again.

  There were still small newspaper reports about the town, but nothing much, just stories about crazy people who thought they saw a ghost walking around the property previously owned by the man nicknamed the Madman.

  The intercom above him let out some static and a grainy voice announced that the next train would be arriving soon and that everyone would take a step back from the bright yellow line.  A minute later, the train arrived and the doors opened showing a bunch of people that then got off as Nico and other people got on.  After everyone that was on, the doors closed and the train started with a jerk and they were off at a slow pace that steadily increased.

  He sighed and thought back to the previous years.  Eight years ago, he entered high school and saw the teen that he could never forget.  Two years after that, the Madman incident happened, forcing Nico to move away and then a year after that he started school once more and then graduated.  Three years ago, he entered university with the thought of getting a job as a coroner afterwards, however he soon found a passion in journalism instead and now worked for a newspaper company.  That was the reason he got up at the ungodly hour of four, something he would never do if it wasn't for the fact that he knew that he was going to get a new story.

  He lived for his job, it was the only thing that kept him moving and never made him bored.  The thought of traveling and looking into a story that varied with each one, made it all the better.  He was recording someone else's life, their history.  He sometimes saw things that some people might not want to see, and these images never made it in ink, instead they were kept in a file locked away.

  He knew different people out there, the rude, the needy and the fakers.  Some didn't want help, others needed a lot of help and many pretended that it didn't even happen in the first place.  Nico knew though, he knew that those experiences would never go away even when you let them go, they follow you in the back of your mind, haunting you on the worst of nights. 

Nico still felt like he was being watched every time he walked down the hallways in his apartment by those dark eyes filled with a demented love for torture, the love for feeling their own happiness through someone's pain. 

The prickling feeling that filled his mind and the hairs on the back of his neck would stand up, his shoulder's would tense and his eyes would dart from side to side, trying to get a glimpse of the Madman.  Nico was used to this and yet he still felt the need to run from the danger that emitted from every dark corner and narrow eyed looks.  The aura of some people made him want to puke and others made him feel dizzy and tired.  He didn't like people, he didn't like anyone except for the girl with the curly hair and the boy with the sea green eyes.

~*~

            The party was in full swing.  The people were chatting and laughing and overall having a good time.  Hazel would smile at the couples and then take more orders.  It was two days until Christmas and they were having their special party they held for their friends.  In the back, she could hear the others also laughing as they cooked the meals.  Reyna and Rachel were racing around the diner as they passed out food to the groups. 

  Booths were filled with the four groups that used to be at each other’s' throats.  Sure there were still some feuds, but they were minor and didn't really matter.  In one booth was Luke, Jason, Leo and Piper, one of them was someone no one would've previously thought to be a good guy or a good friend.  Heading towards them was Thalia.  Beside them was Octavian, Ethan, Beckendorf, Silena and Alabaster, all of them were conversing in one big conversation. 

  Hazel sighed and took in a deep breath of turkey, stuffing and gravy.  She couldn't ask for more, but there were two things that were missing.  One that hadn't arrived yet and the other that had been missing for 6 years. 

  Percy Jackson had never been the same after the incident.  He smiled, laughed and pretended to be as happy as before, but she could see the look of fear and paranoia in his eyes.  His smiles became fake, his laughs forced and the happiness disappeared along with her brother.  Now people usually only saw him was when he was in town with a group of friends, in the broad daylight and wearing the sugar skull hoodie he had bought so many years ago as if he were calling Nico back home.  As time went on, his hope for the goth teen to come back went with the wind and dissipated into nothingness.

  Percy didn't live alone, he lived with Piper and Luke, two people who had yet to find a life partner.  He stuck close to them at night, even going as far as to hold their hand, making sure that they were there.  That's why Hazel worried, both Piper and Luke were already here yet the green eyed male was nowhere to be seen.  Percy didn't like to be in the dark anymore, he made sure to be to places before the sun went down and only went by public transport or with a very trusted friend.  He didn't like to be crowded though and hated being in small spaces.  One time when they had gone into an elevator he started to have a panic attack, after that they made sure to take the stairs. 

  He apologized many times for being a burden, but they just waved it off and/or hugged him, saying that it was okay and that it was fine.  Hazel and the others knew that he couldn't help it, that these problems were forced upon him by a deranged man that loved to see others wither in pain and cry for someone to save them.  Percy admitted that for the first few days he was in the hospital, he felt numb.  To this day, Hazel still teared up slightly.  The things that her friends went through were horrifying.

  Beckendorf's burns had faded slightly, but sadly Silena now could only see shadows of people.  According to Ethan, who now wore an eye patch, Alabaster would wake up some nights and scream his head off.  Octavian and Will said that sometimes Rachel would have these moments where she zoned out and trembled, and the only way that they could bring her out of it was by shaking her slightly, but not too much.  As far as Hazel could tell, Annabeth was relatively okay, but she would get this look in her eyes when someone said something specific.

  It didn't help that sometimes there would be articles about the place saying that there were ghosts or something of that sorts.  The first couple of times trained the others to look over the paper or magazine before handing it to the people who had been kidnapped.

  Regarding Percy, Annabeth had told them that the whole time that they were there, she hadn't seen Percy.  She told them that they would usually be sleeping in the same room together, but there was no sight of the black haired male.  The only thing that Annabeth could deduce was that he was held in solitary confinement.  Annabeth told them that they were lucky he didn't resort of suicide.

  The door jingled and many heads turned, but no one said anything as Percy shuffled over to Luke and Piper, squeezing in between them.  Some made sure to not get too close and let him have room to breathe, others on the far side of the cafe played it safe and pretended that they hadn't been worried about him.  Percy hated being pitied.  After the first year the words “I'm sorry” became nothing but that, words.  They meant nothing to him now and every time anyone said it to him, he would give them a sideways glance before going back to what he was doing before.

  Many things for Percy Jackson have gone wrong.  His biological father died, his first step-father was abusive, Luke turned into a jerk (though he wasn't that much of one now), he had to move away from his old home, he got kidnapped and his crush disappeared on him.  By now, Hazel wouldn't doubt that Percy's hope and trust had been majorly broken.  He was now at the age of 24 and he was living in the shadow of fear.  Hazel could only hope that over time he would be able to get past that, but she also knew that those thoughts he thought while in that room would follow him for the rest of his life.  Percy may think that he was a burden and weak, but he was strong and he _will_ be able to walk down the street without the fear of being taken once more, she would make sure of it.

~*~

            Nico sighed and took a sip of the coffee that was now in his hand.  His plane was heading out in three hours and he had been at the airport for around two already.  It was noon now and four hours ago he had left his work place to go and pack and then head to the airport.  In his briefcase were his notes, the directions to the town and his laptop.  He didn't know what to expect from this trip.  It may be enlightening or a total bust, whatever happened though, he just hoped that they didn't hate him.

  The name of the town was printed neatly at the top of the directions page and he still couldn't believe that fate was leading him back there.  It had been a long time since he had been in contact with any of them, and now all of a sudden he was going to see them all at once.  It was two days until Christmas and he would be arriving on Christmas Eve Day.  Nico didn't want to show up and possibly ruin their Christmas, but his boss had told him that reports of a mysterious killer was heading that way and if he could catch him there than that would make headlines around the world.  Thankfully, not many other people had the same idea and so there was only about three or four other photographers.

  The plane was quite empty, but considering they were going out into the middle of nowhere, it wasn't that surprising.  The only thing out there was the town.

  Nico sighed and tried to get comfortable when someone sat down beside him.  He looked around and sighed.  Of course out of all the hundreds of seats, the one right beside him was taken.  He looked towards the other passenger. “Hey man, this seat isn't taken, is it?” The man said in a joking manner.

  “Uh...” Nico didn't know what to say. “You do know that there is a whole bunch of other seats...right?”

  The guy held up his ticket. “Yeah, well, my ticket says that this is my seat and we are supposed to sit in our seats.  If you want me to move to another seat though, that's perfectly fine.”

  “No, it's okay, just a little odd I guess.  I'm not really used to people that actually sat in their own seat in an empty plane, just as long as they didn't go into another class's area.” Nico told him honestly and other guy laughed before putting his carry on into the cupboard above the seat across the aisle.  He sat down and put on his seat belt as well. 

  “I just find it a little weird to sit in a seat that another passenger could've been sitting in,” the guy shrugged and then held out his hand. “Oh, by the way, name's Tarry.”

  “Nico,” the dark haired male shook hands with Tarry and then settled down.  Out of the corner of his eyes, he looked at the other person.  Tarry was lanky, a little on the short side and had boyish looks.  He wore mostly purple and black and tapped his finger against the armrest.  His dark brown hair looked darker against his fair skin, and his dark eyes were filled with mischievousness.

  “So, Nico, what do you work as?”

  “Journalist.”

  “Ah, cool, me too.  Though right now I'm off duty, I'm just heading this way to see some family.  How about you?”

  “Working and possibly seeing my family.”

  Tarry raised a brow. “Possibly?  What, did you and your family have a spat or something and your being forced to go?  That happened to me a couple of times and let me tell you, it was pretty damn uncomfortable.  Thanks to my brother though, I was able to get out of it really fast.  My brother is pretty cool, we were always together, but unfortunately he is older than me so he went to university and I had to endure our youngest brother, a total ass.”

  Nico sighed and looked up at the ceiling.  This was going to be a long ride.

~*~

            Percy hummed to himself as he made a wall of mashed potatoes for his gravy.  Once the gravy was poured in, he took a green bean and plopped it in, smiling slightly when it moved around on the top. “So, Percy, do you know what you’re getting for Christmas?” Leo asked, resting an elbow on the table and putting his head in his hand.

  Percy shrugged. “Naw, I usually look at them early, but they hid them really well this year, it's not fair.”

  Piper sighed and rolled her eyes. “Percy, you can't always look at your presents beforehand, it totally ruins the surprise.  Besides, don't you just love the mystery of not knowing what it is?”

  “But, I like knowing what it is before better and then having no reaction of Christmas.”

  Luke snorted. “Seriously?  We go to all that trouble to get you presents and you don't even give us the satisfaction of seeing your happy and surprised face.  Now, is that fair?”

  Percy tilted his head like a puppy. “How do you know that my reaction is happy?”

  “Because,” Piper exclaimed, messing up the brunette's hair. “You always like the presents we get you.  You can't deny it either, I've seen you trying to fit as much of the stuff onto your shelves as possible.” The green eyed male could only pout slightly before he went back to playing with his food.

Somehow over all of the noise, he could hear Hazel talking to someone on the phone.  Percy didn't know who it was, nor did he really care.  He just hoped that it was something good and not bad. 

He knew the way that the others looked at him, but there was nothing he could do to stop his reactions.  They felt like they were wired into his brain and he just wanted to get rid of them, god, did he want to be normal again, but he knew that it would take time.  He just wished that it hadn't happened at all.  Also, he missed the boy that held his heart and still did until this day.

  Sure, Percy had tried to date other people, but it didn't have the same spark that it did with…him.  He knew that it was stupid, after all, their longest conversation together was when their friends were being held by the Madman.  He went on a few dates to make it look like he was getting better and even started to date Luke at one point before the relationship dissolved into friendship again.  Percy wasn't disappointed that they didn't work out, he was disappointed in himself for being the way he was.  If he wasn't like this, then maybe by now he would have a boyfriend or a fiancé and may have forgotten about Nico by now.  But dammit, it hurt him knowing that it wasn't Nico holding his hand when he did think about it, it wouldn't be Nico waiting for him at the end of the isle or standing with him as they adopted their first child.

  Percy knew that a long time ago, Nico left and he wasn't coming back.

~*~

            Nico stood at the airport and was waiting for a taxi.  By now, the irritation was probably showing on his face since beside him was his annoying airplane companion.  Tarry would just not SHUT UP!  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  Nico just wanted to punch him in the face and tell him to be quiet because he did not want to know about the other guy's sex life.  Seriously, that should be a line that no one should cross, ever!

  Not only that, but now he had to ride in a taxi with him because Tarry wanted to be kind to the environment and carpool. 

  He had called Hazel when he had landed and warned her that he was showing up.  Nico could only hope that the others would be as kind as Hazel and not beat him bloody.  After all, he did bail on them all those years ago.  It felt kind of like a dream the longer he stood there and watched two other taxis pull up along with theirs'.  A few cars showed up, but there was only about twenty people that were on the small plane they had been on.  Three families, two couples and three single people (Nico and Tarry included in the latter).  They put their bags into the back and then Nico climbed into the front, giving directions to the driver while Tarry caught up on sleep.  That was one of the things that he was thankful for at that time…

~*~

            “Frank, darling, could you grab the baking powder?” Hazel asked sweetly and her husband and he went to the cabinet and grabbed what she asked for and the vanilla extract before going over to her and kissing her on the cheek. “Thanks.” She measured the last ingredients and put them in before pouring the vanilla cake into the pan.  Hazel didn't show it, but she was worried.  Nico had called her and he had told her that he was going to arrive soon.

  She honestly didn't know how to react.  Was she angry?  Happy?  A little disappointed that it took him this long to contact her?  Yes, yes, and yes.  She was so angry and disappointed that he hadn't been in contact, but she was also happy that he was coming back.  Hazel was also concerned.  She didn't know how the others were going to react, she hoped that it wasn't as bad as the scenarios she had created in her head.  This was one of the times she didn't know if she should tell them that he was showing up or not.

  Hazel sighed and put the cake into the oven and then stood there, watching the timer slowly lose minutes.  The bells signaled that someone had entered the diner and Hazel knew, she just knew that it was Nico and rushed out of the kitchen.  There he stood, taller than he had been before, scruffier and also as sleep deprived as he had been when he was a teenager.  He wore a black trench coach, black slacks, a striped shirt and worn down shoes.  A briefcase was in one hand and a small carry on in the other.  All in all, he looked like an older, business man version of his younger self.

  “Nico,” Hazel breathed and smiled slightly before everything went crazy.

~*~

            Hazel was the first person Nico saw when he stepped inside the old diner.  She was taller, but still small.  Her mass of curly hair was more tamed and pulled back with a hair scrunchie, her face had matured and she was curvier than she had been when they were in high school.  She was still just as beautiful as he had remembered, especially with the small smile that was on her face. 

  However, he only got a few seconds before people were practically jumping on top of him.  There was yelling, a lot of yelling.  Almost everyone in the diner was expressing three main emotions.  Anger, happiness and shock.  Very few were nonchalant about it, some were even too stunned to move and instead stared at him with wide eyes and open mouths.  There was one person though that didn't react.  Didn't move from their spot.

  Percy Jackson.

  The male who held his heart in his hands.  The male who was gripping it, not letting it go and Nico wouldn't have it any other way.  It stung very much when the breath taking beauty didn't even raise his head to look his way, or even move to show that he knew he was there.  Nico knew he was probably overwhelmed, feeling slightly abandoned with Nico's sudden disappearance and perhaps even bitter.  The Italian didn't blame him, for it was him that was to blame for both their broken hearts.  They hadn't even known each other that much and yet, Nico leaving had probably torn them both apart.  There was no amount of apologizing Nico could give to be worthy of the green eyed male, and that made him want to give the moon and stars to the one that held his affections.  He would gravel, beg, kiss the ground Percy walked on if that meant he could stay with him for eternity and more.

  Ethan was the first to really take action – which was to run up to Nico and punch him in the face. 

  The dark haired male fell to the ground and winced before touching his check and hissing. “Ow.”

  “Shut up, you deserve that and so much more!” The one-eyed male growled.

  Nico dropped his hand and nodded. “Yeah, I know that.”  He stood up then was pulled into a hug by his sister and he could feel her shaking with quiet sobs.

  “You idiot!  Do you know how much we worried about you?  I tried to find you, but father wouldn't tell me.  I thought you had actually died at one point!  Don't do that again, okay?!  If you do, I'll, I'll hunt you down and make you walk all the way back here!  And if you don't cooperate than I'll make Frank carry you all the way here!  Just don't leave like that again, please,” at the end her voice had fallen to a whisper, her hands were shaking and her knuckles were turning white as she continued to grip his coat.

  Nico opened his mouth to answer Hazel, but the sound of someone standing up caught his attention and his eyes were once more set upon the raven haired beauty.

  Percy, with his head low, walked to the back of the restaurant and went down the hall that the washrooms were in.  Nico looked back down at Hazel and she took a step back and nodded, silently telling him to follow him.  The male did and headed to the hall that his crush went down.  When he got there, he saw that Percy was standing right beside the boys washroom door with his arms crossed loosely, feet about a half a foot away from the base molding and back against the wall, head down with his bangs hiding his face.

  “Percy,” Nico took in a small breath and spread his arms slightly when said person looked up.  The dark eyed man tried to show as much remorse in his face as he could. “I'm back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ummm....yeah so this was technically supposed to be uploaded uh...2 years ago, but I completely forgot about it. Shoutout to Arya for reminding me this existed and hopefully the final part will be uploaded this year...
> 
> Follow my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queenwcrown/  
> I am most active there and I post mostly daily art (at least until school starts)
> 
> (also rereading this was really odd because it's a lot fluffier than I expected...)


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